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SUNY Oswego, moving to increase already substantial opportunities for student research and creative projects, has established an office to provide support and pique student interest in hands-on, faculty-mentored work.Read more

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About Travis Barend

Travis Barend is a first year student at SUNY Oswego majoring in Public Relations. In addition to his studies, Travis is a member of PRSSA and is a student blogger for SUNY Oswego's website. Travis enjoys writing about NASCAR racing in his spare time. He has spent the recent years writing for various websites, including Speedwaymedia.com, a website a part of NASCAR's citizen journalist media corps. He also contributes a weekly news column for NASCARTheGame.com, the official website of the NASCAR video game series. Travis also has his own blog, TracksideChatter.com, where he also posts racing content. You can follow Travis on Twitter @TracksideTravis, but be warned. He tweets about NASCAR. A lot.

Posts by Travis Barend

In the recent weeks, I have always had something to look forward to on Monday nights. No, I’m not talking about Monday Night Football, although that can be true as well. I’m talking about Monday night trivia in Cayuga Hall.

Six weeks ago, my RA convinced me to join her team in what would be a six-week trivia competition for residents of Cayuga. I joined, despite never being an expert in trivia questions. I also did not go into the six-week competition believing that I would set the world on fire, either.

Guess what? We lost.

We earned some points along the way, however. Each week, the top scoring team earns three points while second place earns two and third earns one. If you do not place in the top three, you walk away with nothing. At the end of the six weeks, the most points wins. The first four weeks did not go so successfully for us – we never scored a single point. However, the last two weeks, we scored one point each time. Not bad, considering it was not good.

Besides the agony of defeat, it was a fun six weeks. As a freshman, the first stretch of something new can be unsettling, but trivia night allowed me to quickly find a fun activity. I also got to know some people on and off of my team. Plus, late night was always a weekly routine following trivia. We celebrated our losses and small victories with food each and every time.

After six weeks, it is all over. While we did not quite take the championship – we were not even close – trivia will return next semester and give us an opportunity to redeem ourselves.

September 18th was a big day around campus and it had nothing to do with college. It was release day of Apple’s new operating system, iOS7.

When midday hit, the Wi-Fi across campus took a beating. Hordes of people began syncing up their phones to receive the highly anticipated update. For the iPhone loyalists out there, this day could not have come soon enough.

If you ask those who downloaded iOS7, they will tell you the process was no easy one. With so many downloading at once, the update took some time – time that many folks did not want to give up. The anticipation was high and the wait was long.

“The download was extremely frustrating and took forever to complete,” Dylan Galusha, a freshman, said. “As soon as it finally was finished, it then told me that I couldn’t install it on my phone, which was very annoying. I had to wait another few hours until it would let me install. It was definitely time consuming.”

It has now been over two weeks since the update went live and people are still eager to discuss the change, just as they were on day one. For many, the new style is refreshing and positive. Still, the opinions of iOS7 are not completely upbeat and perfect.

Laurie Werner, a freshman, has a positive view primarily.

“I think it’s really cool and advanced,” Werner said. “It’s more colorful and it is a lot better than the other iOS versions. This is one of the biggest changes I’ve seen before on the iPhone.”

Some students on campus, like sophomore Lindsey Moses, did not even download the update.

“I heard negative things about it and I kind of like my phone the way it is now,” Moses said.

No matter what the opinions are, iOS7 certainly has been a big topic to those iPhone savvy users on campus. The innovation by Apple has sparked talk on local, national, and international levels.

Every college student has been encouraged to get involved and to make the most of their years at school – probably so much so that it may get annoying to hear at times. But people don’t just say this to be nagging; there really are benefits to doing something with your time. Surprise!

Not only is there the opportunity to meet new people and actually become social, there is the likelihood that being involved is…wait for it… fun!

SUNY Oswego offers many opportunities to do something other than eating, sleeping, and studying. As a freshman, it was slightly overwhelming to see all the different clubs and organizations available. How did I know which club would be the right one for me?

I’m a Public Relations major, so I figured the top of my list should be the school’s PR club, the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America if you have enough breath to say it). I took a look around at the club fair a few weeks ago and signed up for PRSSA. Quite honestly, I didn’t know much about the club when I put my name down, but I figured I would at least give it a shot.

PRSSA is a nationwide organization of students who are groomed in PR to gain more experience and to learn more about the field. Oswego’s group works closely with clients to help publicize and promote events. Members are given opportunities to work in all areas of the broad field, from making fliers to writing press releases and anywhere in between.

I have already attended two meetings (meetings occur every Tuesday evening) and so far, I am feeling good about this group. Not only am I getting a jump start on my PR studies through this club, I am already gaining experience which will only help me as I search for a job down the road.

I am going to make a shameless plug here, but if you are slightly interested in what Public Relations includes, check it out! Even if you think you may not have an interest in what PR has to offer, it wouldn’t hurt to look into it. You might be surprised to find out that this is right up your alley.

Even if it turns out that PR is not your thing, there are plenty of opportunities to become involved on campus. After only a month living here, it is amazing to me that there are so many different clubs for so many different people. A friend of mine, who is a freshman as well, is in the American Marketing Association club to gain experience in his major.

I’m sure there are clubs out there that I am totally unaware of, but are probably perfect for me. In my years here, you can bet I will be looking into as much as I can.